Chris Hanretty

For the fourth time in fourteen years, Berlusconi has met with the President of the Republic and been asked to form a government. He’s broken with precedence, and instead of accepting the post with riserva (that is, whilst awaiting the other parties’ agreement on the composition of the government), has presented a list of ministers at the same time as accepting. They are:

• Foreign Affairs: Franco Frattini (FI)
• Interior: Roberto Maroni (Lega Nord)
• Justice: Angelino Alfano (AN)
• Defence: Ignazio La Russa (AN)
• Economy: Giulio Tremonti(FI)
• Economic development: Claudio Scajola (FI)
• Agriculture: Luca Zaia (Lega Nord)
• Environment: Stefania Prestigiacomo (FI)
• Infrastructure: Altero Matteoli (AN)
• Labour: Maurizio Sacconi (FI)
• Culture: Sandro Bondi (FI)
• Education: Maria Stella Gelmini (FI)
• Relationships w/ parliament: Elio Vito (FI)
• Federalist reforms: Umberto Bossi (LN)
• ‘Simplification’: Roberto Calderoli (LN)
• Regions: Giancarlo Fitto (FI)
• Equal opportunities: Mara Carfagna (FI)
• EU Affairs: Andrea Ronchi (AN)
• Public administration: Renato Brunetta (FI)
• Youth: Giorgia Meloni (AN)
• Government program: Gianfranco Rotondi (DCA)

The last nine of these are ministers without portfoglio. Appointing ministers without portfoglio is necessary because the number of ministers is limited to 12, whilst the total size of the government (including ministers without portfoglio and under-secretaries) must be less than sixty, a requirement stemming from the legge Bassannini which has unfortunately been honoured more in the breach than in the implementation.

First, AN has done badly. It’s impossible to tell how many votes Alleanza Nazionale brought to the PdL, and thus to tell how much they should “weigh” in the government. But they used to have half of Forza Italia’s vote share, and two-and-a-half times the vote-share of the Lega. They now have a third of the Forza Italia’s ministers, and the same number as the Lega Nord.Granted, Fini is now President of the Camera, which is undoubtedly a source of pride for him (and thus for the party), but to have the same weight as the Lega must smart.

AN might be bought off with a disproportionate number of under-secretaries. There’s some research on the role of under-secretaries in coalition governments which argues that under-secretaries typically come from different parties from the minister in order to act as internal watchdogs: maybe AN will get under-secretaries to ‘watch’ Lega ministers.

Second, there are divergences between FI and AN, and these may cause problems for the government. The PdL campaigned in a reasonably cohesive manner as a single unit, but now that there are posts of power to be had, FI and AN have emerged as distinct units. AN seems not to be dissolving itself, with Fini having handed over party leadership to a ‘regent‘, and with party statutes still to be drawn up. Whether these squabbles are birthing pains or not remains to be seen.

Third, the distribution of the portfolios is very heavily gendered. The four women are all concentrated in ‘caring’ ministries (Environment, Education, Equal Opportunities, Youth policies) and the female ministers are typically much younger than their male colleagues. The commentary in today’s Repubblica about Mara Carfagna is slyly dismissive (in an unusually subtle way for Repubblica: what’s happening?):

” Confermando tutte le previsioni, la donna alla qualeBerlusconi disse in pubblico, ti sposerei subito, se non fossi già sposato”, diventa ministro… Adesso il compito della bella Mara sarà quello di dimostrare che tutte hanno pari opportunità. Anche le altre”.

“Confirming all the forecasts, the woman to whom Berlusconi once said in public, “I would marry you if not married already”, becomes minister… Now the task of the lovely Mara will be to demonstrate that all have equal opportunities. Including all the other women”.

Certainly, Italy has a long way to go before it can catch up with Spain and the wonderful example of Carme Chacón.

Update: the link to Sartori’s editorial got mangled in the comments.